Stage 15 of the Vuelta a España brought another sprint showdown, with Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) prevailing over green jersey Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease A Bike) on the uphill finish in Villablino. Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech) rounded out the podium at the front of the reduced peloton at the finish.
Despite the stage featuring a late first-category climb, the day brought a mass bunch sprint finish, with the three sprint stage winners so far all featuring at the head of the race. Alpecin-Deceuninck had command of the head of the peloton in the closing kilometres, and so their confidence won out as the Belgian squad delivered the Australian to his second stage win of the race.
While DSM-Firmenich PostNL worked hard to deliver stage 5 winner Pavel Bittner into prime position late on, the gradient to the line saw Groves and Van Aert emerge as the cream of the crop among the fast finishers.
It was Groves who launched first, 150 metres from the line, with Van Aert poised to strike for a fourth stage win from the 25-year-old’s wheel. However, the points classification leader didn’t have enough power to outlast Groves on the drag to the line, almost pulling alongside his rival but not managing to do so.
“It feels really good. I didn’t actually expect today to be as sprint as it was, but Visma controlled it. To have a man-on-man sprint against Wout is pretty awesome,” Groves said after the stage.
“I think it was quite OK in the wheels [on the climb]. I thought it might be a bit hard if they start attacking but thankfully Visma rode a really high pace and no one attacked. My teammates also got over with me so we could control the finish.
“The team did a great job. Edward again, did a good lead out, like he did in Seville, but today, I didn’t hesitate, and I think I did a really good sprint. It felt like quite a bit of a drag race against Wout but in the end, it was good enough to beat him.”
There was a touch of late drama on the stage as overall contender Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) was forced to switch bikes on the downhill run to the finish. Luckily for the three-time winner and his team, teammate Dani Martínez was around to hand over his own bike before Roglič made his way back to the peloton for the final 9km.
The Slovenian finished along with the rest of the red jersey contenders – including race leader Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) – finished safely in the peloton, meaning the day brought no changes at the top of the overall standings. O’Connor continues to lead the race by 1:21 from Roglič.
How it unfolded
Stage 14 of the Vuelta a España brought another foray into the mountains for the peloton, though not another summit finish, on the longest stage of the race – a 200.5km run from Villafranco del Bierzo to Villablino.
The first half of the stage would be marked by a long, gradual uphill run to the third-category climb of Puerto de Cerredo before a loop down into the valley. The main challenge of the day, the first-category Puerto de Leitariegos (22.8km at 4.5%), was followed by a 15km downhill run to the finish.
The early kilometres of the stage were marked by masses of attacks at the front, with the first hour of racing run at an average of 50kph and no breakaway to show for the efforts of numerous riders attempting to get away.
A group did eventually break clear at around the 156km to go mark. Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates) was joined in the move by Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny), Jhonatan Narváez (Ineos Grenadiers), Xandro Meurisse (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Marco Frigo (Israel-Premier Tech), and Harold Tejada (Astana Qazaqstan).
On the long uphill drag towards the day’s first climb, the move took over two minutes on the peloton, though with Visma-Lease A Bike taking charge behind, their advantage wouldn’t grow much larger.
By the time Meurisse led the way over the peak of the Puerto de Cerredo with 98km to run, the group lay 1:40 ahead of the peloton.
Little changed on the way down the long descent, though the break would lose a handful of extra seconds heading downhill. Little else changed before the riders approached the long and steady Puerto de Leitariegos, with the climb set to host the main action of the day before the finish.
Up front, the breakaway, despite featuring several strong riders, looked a doomed prospect given their relatively meagre lead. Heading into the final 40km at the base of the climb, Narváez sensed just that and struck out on his own.
Behind him, the group split as Meurisse, Campenaerts, and Del Toro went backwards. Meanwhile, Tejada and Frigo fought on and linked up with the Ecuadorian to leave three battling on out front.
At the 30km mark, however, the gap back to the peloton – still led by Visma – lay at just 40 seconds, and the writing was on the wall. Once again, it was up to Narváez to colour the move, striking out again at 23km to go as Frigo and Tejada were caught.
Narváez would keep on going until the 20km to go mark, still some 3km away from the top of the climb. By that point, he was reabsorbed by the pack, which at that point numbered around 60 men.
Unsurprisingly, the polka dot and green jersey leader Wout van Aert struck out at the top to grab 10 extra points towards the tally of the former competition. But there would be no GC action over the top, meaning that Visma could attempt to carry out their day’s plan in delivering Van Aert to another stage win.
The descent down into Villablino was largely unremarkable, with no riders chancing their arm trying to go clear at the front. There was a moment of panic for Primož Roglič, however, as his Vuelta flashed before his eyes thanks to a mechanical 15km from the finish.
He quickly mounted his teammate’s bike, though, and was back in the peloton in plenty of time for the finish – no drama, having bridged a reported 30-second gap.
Then, things were left up to the sprint squads as Visma, Alpecin, and DSM sought to control the peloton on the run to the line to set the sprint up for their fast finishers. All three teams were still in the frame in the final kilometre, but in the end it was Groves vs Van Aert, with the Australian powering home and holding off his sprint rival at the line.
Results
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